MAD RIVER Winner of the 1994 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize Selected by Dorianne Laux It is in her keen mental note taking that the real madness - that is, passion - lies. In every poem, she keeps her fury contained but omnipresent, so that it resembles a cornered dog's warning growl, yet she hints at happier possibilities, too. - Booklist Raw, energetic, gritty, risky, sexy, and real. . . The power of these short narratives is often cumulative, building a vision of a world seen through the eyes of a wanderer, a woman, a waitress. - Dorianne Laux I would shout from my back porch 'Read these poems!' (if I knew you would listen); they are funny and smart, lush and tough-minded, wacky in that particular American wackiness, graceful, burning, alive. - Bruce Weigl A fresh voice with rough edges, shamelessly bringing sex, fear, compassion, the hurt you feel for others and the self - and the grit and drive of working class lives - into language. - Alicia Ostriker There are so many tributaries connecting Mad River to our everyday world. Jan Beatty isn't afraid to venture into the quicksand that troubles our national psyche at the edge of this millennium. . . [Her] poems speak to us head-on, with courage and a contemporaneous eloquence. - Yusef Komunyakaa All work copyright © Jan Beatty 2024